Tamil Nadu is the most urbanised State with 48.45 percentage of the State’s population living in urban areas. Of the 7.21 crore population, nearly 3.5 crore are living in the urban areas. Tamil Nadu is expected to lead in urbanisation in the next two decades. Rapid urbanisation has created huge challenges as well as opportunities. In order to reap the benefits of the economic opportunity by all the sections of the society, sustainable infrastructure development and targeted poverty reduction in the urban areas are necessary.

The Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department is responsible for the development of urban areas in the State and ensuring provision of water supply to all the areas of the State.

It is the aim and objective of the Government to develop the Urban Local Bodies into self-reliant institutions of local governance. In order to achieve this, a strong and motivated workforce and committed elected representatives are necessary. In this regard, the capacity building activities for the functionaries will be further streamlined and strengthened, so as to steer all the Urban Local Bodies to achieve excellence in Urban Governance.

Government has taken concerted initiatives to provide good quality of life and improve the living conditions of the urban citizens. Urban poverty has posed a major threat to equitable growth and development. Government is now focusing its efforts towards growth oriented policies and that the infrastructure development has been given a major thrust for the sustained growth of the urban areas.

Various infrastructure developments viz., Under Ground Sewerage System, Storm Water Drains, Improvement of Roads, Bus stands, Water supply, slum upgradation and Housing for Urban Poor etc., have been taken up with the financial assistance from the World Bank assisted Tamil Nadu Urban Development Project III (TNUDP-III), Government of India assisted Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM) and various external funding agencies like Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and the Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau (KfW) of Germany.

There are 9 Corporations and 150 Municipalities including 12 grade III Municipalities under the Administrative control of the Commissionerate of Municipal Administration. The Municipalities are classified into different grades based on their Annual income / Population criteria.